The Story: An apparent suicide bombing takes place in Pennsylvania, but there are no traces of explosives. The strange incident sends Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) across the globe to Iraq to solve the deadly mystery. At the same time, Olivia struggles with her continued memory loss, currently manifesting in the form of vicious headaches. In the end, an important clue is revealed about a familiar bald character with a penchant for spicy food.

Head Trauma: This mystery-of-the-week completely redefined the meaning of brain freeze as these suicide bombers -- former American soldiers unwittingly dosed with a foreign agent -- exploded into millions of crystallized pieces. That was pretty wild. Also, Olivia's continued search to recollect her memory kicked up just a couple of notches -- specifically, she got some red flickering flashes of her meeting with Massive Dynamic founder William Bell (Leonard Nimoy), which we're supposedly seeing more of next week.

Iraqi Nights: I certainly never imagined the day that I'd declare my fondness for Joshua Jackson, but here we are. The dude has won me over, thanks to Peter's central role in these first few episodes of "Fringe's" second season. I definitely enjoyed returning to his Iraqi roots, which is where we found him in the first episode of the series. (Hey, seriously, don't tell anyone that I think Jackson's cool. My high school buddies would never let me hear the end of it.)

The New Mr. Jones: Perhaps the most important moment from "Fracture," other than the very ending (which we'll get to next), was the introduction of Colonel Raymond Gordon, the off-the-grid military man condemning his experimented-upon soldiers to death by crystallized explosion. He seems to have a hunch or two about "Fringe's" overarching mysteries, and I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of him.

Observations: The Observer is back! According to Gordon, the Observers are studying mankind so they can learn how to destroy us. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, as they certainly have an interest in Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), but let's get real -- who doesn't love that man? Either way, there's clearly something fishy with the Observers, and I'm as interested as anyone to see whose side they're really on.

Conclusions: An excellent mystery-of-the-week episode to be sure, though I'm really itching for more details on the alternate reality. Luckily, that's supposed to come next week with the return of Nimoy's William Bell, which makes tonight's less mythology-oriented outing easier to swallow. Plus, the end reveal with the Observer was pretty spicy, to say the least.

Next Week: The shapeshifter posing as Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo) returns, and it looks like "24" alumnus Roger Cross is joining the fray as some sort of bad guy. Oh yeah, and that Leonard Nimoy scene. It's about frakkin' time.

What did you think of tonight's "Fringe"? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!